Experimental Sciences & Mathematics
BSc degree in Forest Science at University of Firenze (Italy, 1992). Research Associate at Istituto Sperimentale per la Selvicoltura (Italy, 1992). PhD in plant environmental biology at the University of Firenze (Italy, 1993-1995). Postdoc at Boyce Thompson at Cornell University (USA, 1995-1997). Lecturer, senior lecturer, reader, then Professor of Forest Science at Edinburgh University (UK, 1997-2016).
I am working at the frontier between biological and environmental sciences, at the interface with global change. My major contributions to current debates have been in the study of the dynamics of forests, particularly carbon and water cycles. I have worked in Boreal, temperate, tropical and Mediterranean forests and in deserts. I have worked in various countries in Europe, USA, Australia, Brazil and Africa. I have authored more than 150 peer-reviewed papers. I am very involved in international debates concerning the mechanisms and the effects of longer and more intense droughts in accelerating mortality of trees in the Mediterranean and in the tropics. I also work closely with the forestry sector on a large range of themes, including the regional modelling of growth and carbon sequestration using a combination of modelling, data assimilation and remote sensing.
– Nair R, Perks MP, Weatherall A, Baggs EM & Mencuccini M 2016, ‘Does canopy nitrogen uptake enhance carbon sequestration by trees?’, Global Change Biology, 22, 1, 875-888.
– Binks O, Meir P, Rowland L, Lola da Costa AC, Silva Vasconcelos S, Ribeiro de Oliveira AA, Ferreira L, Christoffersen B, Nardini A & Mencuccini M 2016, ‘Plasticity in leaf-level water relations of tropical rainforest trees in response to experimental drought’, New Phytologist, 211, 477 – 488.
– Continued involvement in six funded grants (NERC, NSF, ARC, Ministerio).
– Participated in proposal writing for three more grants.
– One keynote talk in international conference in 2016.
– Organisation of one international workshop.
– External examiner of three PhD thesis (Zurich, Madrid, Barcelona).
– Seventeen papers published or accepted in 2016.
– Fieldwork in Australia, Brazil and Peru.